I still can't understand how people of America can think to support Republicans after having 8 year of DISASTER.World superpower is on the verge to loose war in Iraq as well as in Afghanistan.They somehow want save their face by compromising with Taliban and their economy is in Distress.Americans have always considered to be smart.I hope they will show this during this election............otherwise this will proved to be kiss of death for AMERICAN EMPIRE.GOOD LUCK AMERICANS!!!!!

As an undecided voter, I saw Barrack Obama's proposed policies contradict what he proposed in the first debate. Above all, his proposals lacked substance/meaning. I no longer have faith in him also because he believes it is the government's responsibility to provide health care; however, his proposals on this topic have remained vague. The last president who raised taxes under these circumstances was Herbert Hoover. I'm sorry, but I will probably not vote for Obama because I cannot see how he could succeed with his policies.

John McCain has run one of the worst campaigns in modern history. He nearly went bankrupt in the primaries with foolish overspending which got him no where. He faced a fortuitious combination of split votes and winner-take-all that led to him locking down the nomination early. Then, he squandered the spring and summer by not developing a strong ground game or coherent strategy against the Democrats. Then, he added in the Karl Rove team players without actually firing his own team, and let them transform the campaign into divide-and-conquer-without-truth. Then, he impulsively picked an untested and unqualified VP because of her gender and religious fundamentalism. Then, he mostly hid her from the press, while letting her give just enough interviews to look bad but not practiced. He goes to his first debate and acts like a grumpy old man who is angry that someone walked on his lawn. Finally, he proclaims the economy sound hours before it tanks, pretends to suspend his campaign while fouling up the negotiations with the House Republicans, forcing a compromise boondogle bill in the end.

Now, his campaign has announced they want the subject changed off economic policy and onto Barack Obama's scary personality? All the time the headlines remind the voters of this crisis?

He is creating conditions for a landslide victory for the Democrats, similar to 1932.

John McCain's false statement on 60 Minutes less than 3 weeks ago claiming that his campaign manager, Rick Davis had no involvement with mortgage giant Freddie Mac should have received more press coverage than Sarah Palin's ridiculous proclamation of relevant foreign policy experience due to her state's proximity to Canada and Siberia.

How can America expect reform from a McCain administration that is being run by the lobbyists that enabled this financial disaster in the first place?

Had it been Obama making such a false comment on a critical issue while being interviewed on the most revered news magazine show in the country, it would have ended his quest for the Presidency right then and there. But John McCain marches on.

Imagine if the Obama family owed back property taxes, as Cindy McCain did this summer, or if Joe Biden owed $25k in back income taxes as Sarah Palin does today. How would it be treated in the media?

Palin's husband was a member of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at it's core a secessionist manifesto. Is that not 100x worse than saying "for the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country"? That harmless line went viral in the news media, but Palin's association with a group that doesn't want Alaska to be part of America anymore has been forgiven.

To for-worldconscienceHave some common sense will you? If you were smart and educated at all you would know that in order to persuade other people, first it's important to be nice and polite at the very least! In the Western world you are always afforded the right to voice your opinion but on the other hand you must forgo the ways and costumes learned at your far East country and join us in the West but do so politely. Your posts are like garbage thrown all over this nice and respectable magazine which the whole world reads.Thank you

to list down these deficiencies of this black folk then it will need thousands of lines to list them all! etc

From a person who can't even write a coherent sentence. You are an example of why I sometimes have problems with the access the internet provides to everyone because on my months pay I bet you don't have a subscription with The Economist. For some odd reason ( hopefully not racist )I have a hunch that you are oriental.

Slavery is very much in evidence in Britain....thats why we import millions of Polish people to pay them less wages for the state machine sponsors. Call-centres in INDIA ensure more unemployment for the restless English natives....drunk every night and armed with knives...its like a Clockwork Orange.

for-worldconscience:Even more disturbing than your OVERUSE OF CAPITALS, poor spelling, bad grammar and meandering discourse is the racism inherent in some of your posts.We fought a terrible war to end slavery, endured a century of legal discrimination, and are even now trying to put our civil rights on an even keel - while you seem to believe that there are other throwbacks to a more brutal and primitive type of humanoid out there who are going to listen to you.Please try to learn to respect other people, or at least express yourself as if you did.

Who save the U.S. Economy during the Great Depression of the 1930s???? A Great democrate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the economic and banking systems.[1] Although recovery of the economy was incomplete until almost 1940, the programs he initiated such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continue to have instrumental roles in the nation's commerce. One of his most important legacies is the Social Security system.

Now is time to rebuild the economy again, nobody is better than other great democrate Barack Obama, is time to exposure this better.

Deregulation didn't create the crisis. But regulators didn't stop it from becoming a crisis. And it was Democrats in congress who blocked the regulators from doing their job. And it was Republicans who wanted stricter controls on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2003, and again in 2005.

No question that the world would welcome President Obama with open arms and America will win genuine respect. He looks better suited to bring to an end the mess in Iraq. That's a huge plus. But after the initial euphoria, the number one job is fixing the economy. Much of their present election promises have become outdated; indeed they increasingly look out of place under the light of the new developments. For the remaining period, the candidates should present how each of them would go about with this job so that voters have some clues.

"John McCain put forth a bill in 2005..." Enough already. For 6 years Bush had a Republican Congress that rubber-stamped his every wish. Why didn't they resolve this issue then? Them trying to blame this failure on anyone else at this point doesn't pass the smell test.

If John McCain couldn't get his legislation passed in 2005 when there was a Republican president and a Republican congress he must be totally incompetent. And what chance does he have of getting anything passed in the future?

Our political system needs a Republican party that can think beyond Taxcuts, Deregulation and Invasion.
Hopefully, after their resounding defeat in November, they will spend some time to acquire an updated and improved ideology that has some relevance in the 21st Century.

After the Olympic Game, the citizens in Beijing had already complained the unbearable air condition they suffered before the Game. So, this time authority want to cure this problem permanently.

For American general election, surely much more foreigners pay their attention to it. They know the president of US can not only affect its people but also abroad. Until now, most abroad tend to choose Barack Obama whose motto is "change", because US indeed need a change if it wants to resurvive from this credit crunch. No one want to suffer this turmoil any more, so Obama is their prefer.

Although the new bail-out plan had been approved by House, it doesn't represent that the market will be flourish soon. Investor are still cautious to spend their money. For some Asian countries who have tremendous flow capital, this crisis may turn out to be a chance for them to challenge Wall street's dominated roll in market, China and Japan are surely included.

Obama's lead expanding with the onset of Wall Street turmoil. Hmm. This may well owe to his populist stance, placing the entire blame on Wall Street and Bush and picturing Main Street as innocent victim. Of course, Main Street shares its part of the blame, honesty about which is important if its behaviour as the consumer of credits is ever to change. Tackling with the financial crisis and economic downturn, and ushering in necessary changes will be the #1 priority for the next president for much of his term. Given his inexperience, cautiousness and seemingly instinctive populism, I wonder whether President Obama would be principled and firm enough to take often unpopular but necessary decisions. It is also worrying that his election promises are mostly about eating the fruit of economy, not rebuilding it or making it more efficient. On the other hand, Mccain strikes as an economic illiterate. Hard choice!